Tag Archives: scallopers
New England scallopers face a tough 2025
New England scallopers are looking at another tough year in 2025, as they prepare for a set of federal regulations to protect both their livelihoods and the Atlantic Ocean’s scallop populations. If approved by NOAA Fisheries, the new rules, called Scallop Framework 39, will reduce the number of times that full-time vessels can go drag in some federally-managed scalloping grounds — called “access areas” — in the 2025 fishing year. But they will allow these vessels more time to scallop in the open ocean. The start of the access-area scalloping season will also be pushed back from April 1 to May 15, 2025. It will end on March 31, 2026. Local scallopers and industry representatives say the contents of Framework 39 are not a surprise. Landings have been shrinking over the past four years. “We’re just tightening the belt, and taking a deep breath, and riding the storm out,” said New Bedford scallop vessel manager and owner Tony Alvernaz. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:50
Scallop Boat Virtual Tour
New Bedford, home to fishing of nearly all types, is the most valuable commercial fishing port in the United States, and the world’s sea scallop capital. The two largest fisheries in the harbor are divided between the ground-fishermen and those who scallop, with hundreds of vessels of each type operating out of the port. F/V Huntress, built in 1979, is typical in both size and layout for the scalloping fleet in the area, and her trips to sea last between five and fourteen days. Take the tour! more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:19
Scallopers assail continued closure of Northern Edge
Fisheries regulators voted this month to “discontinue” development of a plan to reopen the Northern Edge of Georges Bank — a lucrative scallop ground that has long been closed to commercial fishing. In April, the New England Fishery Management Council agreed to consider requests to reopen the fishing grounds at the urging of both the scallop industry and Mayor Jon Mitchell. He and industry representatives cited significant headwinds for the region’s top fishery, including a slump in prices and fewer days at sea for fishermen. They added that opening the Northern Edge would benefit the whole port economy and surrounding businesses. But in the midst of a four-day meeting in Freeport, Maine, the Council voted not to continue discussing plans to reopen the area in order to focus on the “long-term productivity of the Georges Bank scallop resource.” For regulators, it’s a balancing act to weigh sustainability and the economic pressures on fishermen to sustain their livelihoods. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:43
A day on the ocean with Maine’s tough winter scallopers
Their day began in the 5:30 a.m. darkness, when Josh Todd and his father, Alex Todd, steamed the F/V Jacob & Joshua from Chebeague Island to Littlejohn Island, where they picked up Blanchard. As Alex Todd piloted his boat to the day’s fishing ground west of Eagle Island, Josh Todd and Blanchard readied the vessel’s eight-foot, 1,500-pound dredge where it hung from scaffolding at the stern. Once in position, Blanchard lowered the dredge on a quarter-inch steel cable. The Jacob & Joshua shuddered, and the rigging groaned, as the dredge bit into the graveled sea floor, roughly 80 feet below. 8 photos, more, >>click to read<< 08:15
Narragansett’s Charles J. Wolf, Featured on Discovery Channel Series Lobster Wars, has passed away
We sadly said goodbye to Narragansett surfcaster and owner of Surf Ninja Customs, Charles J Wolf (Lepre). Born February 13, 1979, in Warwick, RI. Charlie passed due to complications from a heart condition, on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at the age of 44. Charlie was surrounded by his family, at Hope Hospice Center in Providence, RI. As a senior at Narragansett High School, he joined the Pt Judith commercial fishing fleet. He worked on lobster boats, scallopers and everything else that fished our waters. That same year, he was offered the captain seat of the inshore Lobster Boat the Jeanie, owned and operated by Thomas Ditmar. Tom became a mentor to Charlie, teaching him the ins and outs of operating and maintaining a fishing vessel. During his career, he was featured on the Discovery Channel series Lobster Wars. At that time, he was a deckhand on The Dragon Lady, an offshore Lobster Boat out of Pt Judith. Charlie spent over 20 years in the commercial fishing industry earning a reputation as a skilled and worthy deckhand and shipmate, becoming a brother to many. >click to read< 10:43
Banner Bay Scallop Year Not All Good News for Fishermen
It has been a bountiful season for the Vineyard’s bay scallop fishery, one of the last places left where fishermen are still able to pull in semi-consistent harvests. But scallopers have struggled to take advantage of the strong season because the spike in supply stressed a distribution network atrophied from years of uncertainty. “The market just closed down, three out of the four main buyers in Edgartown just totally shut down,” said Arno Ewing, who works on John Conlon’s Sengekontacket-based scalloping boat. “I don’t think I’ve seen prices this low in five years.” While earlier in the season scallopers could count on getting $27 per pound for their catch, fishermen on-Island are now only getting around $15. The situation was even more dire last month, when fishermen were hard-pressed to find any buyer at all, said Net Result fish market manager Mike Holtham, who sells scallops locally and to regional distributors. >click to read< 08:03
‘It’s the big guys that want it’: New Bedford scallopers leery of leasing proposal
“A typical full-time [Limited Access] scallop vessel harvests its annual scallop allocation in approximately 70 days, leaving vessels inactive and tied to the dock more than 80 percent of the year,” the organization wrote in a July 2020 letter to the NEFMC. “The only growth option is to buy another permit, which means buying another vessel. “Although one vessel could easily harvest the allocation of two LA permits, the fleet has no flexibility to do so,” it continues. “In the absence of a leasing program, smaller, independent owner/operators are not able to grow their operations in reasonable increments.” But to Manuel Vieira, owner and captain of The Guidance, arguments revolving around flexibility were merely pretty words. “They say there will be flexibility because that’s what they think the [council] wants to hear,” Vieira said in Portuguese. “But it won’t pan out well for the little guy.”Video, >click to read< 15:39
America’s biggest scallopers want changes to regulations preventing consolidation
“The bottom line is this proposal is about global control, from the switch to the fish to the dish,” said Alan Cass, a former New Bedford scalloper who began his career as a deckhand and retired as a boat owner. “The resource will be at the mercy of a consolidated effort by these corporations to control ocean-to-table and economically injure the small entities in this industry.” For nearly 30 years, scallopers like Cass and his son, who followed him into the industry, have gone to sea under a set of regulations that limit both the amount of scallops that can be harvested each year and the share of that harvest that belongs to the industry’s biggest players. Roy Enoksen, the president of Eastern Fisheries and a co-owner of the nation’s largest scallop fleet, said leasing would allow him to stack scallop allocations onto more efficient vessels and save on maintenance costs. >click to read< 13:10
‘I don’t want to be a Wal-Mart fisherman’: Scallopers sound off about permit leasing/consolidation
The New England Fisheries Management Council held a scoping meeting Wednesday at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on its proposed Scallop Fishery Management Plan adjustment. Should it go through, the plan would allow scallopers to lease out portions of their days at sea license to other boats, causing concern among small fisherfolk and portside business-owners alike. “I was born a fisherman’s daughter and became a fisherman’s wife,” said Evelyn Sklar at the meeting. “And now I’m a fisherman’s mother and a fisherman’s grandmother. “I hope I can die in peace, because this doesn’t belong in the fishing family industry.” “When consolidation happened [in the groundfish fleet], the community dried up around it,” “As consolidation happened with draggers, they were forced out of business,” said Justin Mello, captain of the Temptress. “I can see the same thing happening. >click to read< 08:12
New Bedford Scallopers tell fishery managers they don’t want leasing
More than 110 attendees, a mix of fishermen, shoreside business owners, marine scientists, attorneys and vessel owners, filled a meeting room at the Whaling Museum on Wednesday for the first of two public meetings in New Bedford on the leasing proposal. Those who spoke in opposition drew loud applause, while those who spoke in support drew little or none. “There was a time in this industry when a father owned a boat and he taught his son, and his son was able to rise up … buy and operate his own boat, and you know, those days are gone,” said Tyler Miranda, a New Bedford captain of two scallopers. “I think that if [leasing] does move forward and is developed, it will take even further away from the family and community dynamic that fishing is and always was — and will make it more corporate.” >click to read< 13:50
F/V Nemesis Pulled from the bottom of New Bedford Harbor
Crews managed to lift the fishing vessel Nemesis out of about 20 feet of water on Friday. The Dinah Jane remained submerged but will be pulled from the water soon. It has yet to be determined when exactly. The two Carlos Rafael scallopers sank around 1:30 a.m. Monday at Homer’s Wharf. On Friday, crews blew air into sunken vessel and used a crane to stabilize it. After examination, the Nemesis will likely remain docked off Homer’s Wharf, according to the Harbor Development Commission. >Photo’s, click to read<18:09
1993 – Scallopers See a Livelihood Imperiled
Like the 19th-century whalers who lived and labored here before them, scallopers say they fear they may become the next fallen icons of New England, remembered only in museums, books and the tall barroom tales of fishermen.,,, Tensions soared last month when Federal agents raided 22 scalloping vessels in the Port of New Bedford, seizing $126,220 worth of scallops. The agents, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, charged six boat owners with catching undersized, or baby, scallops and a seventh with unloading a catch outside the 5 A.M.-to-5 P.M. “window” set by Federal officials. ,,, “We’re not drug runners; we’re not murderers; we’re not rapists,” said Bobby Bruno, a 52-year-old scalloper who started as a deckhand 33 years ago and now owns the Alpha & Omega II, a 96-foot scalloping ship. “We’re just fishermen, and we go out and we work hard so we can come home and be with our families and be happy.” Take a look back. Click here to read the story 08:34
Think about opening areas to scallopers, reps say
NEW BEDFORD — Eight congressmen led by Rep. William Keating have written to fisheries managers asking for a close look at the effects of reopening some areas closed to scallopers for 209 years. (Wow! That’s a long time! Almost as long as Markey has been in office)) continued@southcoasttoday
A Closer Eye on Shellfishing Waters (theres a lot goin’ on in East Hampton)
Attending the March 19 meeting were a number of baymen who spoke in favor of the nine-member panel’s efforts on their behalf, and on behalf of the inshore waters they depend on for their livelihood. Trap fishermen, scallopers, and clammers spoke in favor of the trustees’ charging commercial shellfishermen 75 cents each for the bushel bags that bear the trustee emblem, and for charging for boat moorings as well. “The money goes back to you and the harbors,” said Dan Lester. continued
